The Energon Pub

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

"Mirage! A long time!" Motormaster's doom-laden voice bellowed on the battlefield as he approached the famous Autobot warrior.

There was still some distance between the two, giving either combatant a chance to still use ranged weaponry. Which was exactly what Motormaster did.

A small chuckle escaping his vocalizer, he fired couple of quick blasts at Mirage, not really bothering to take aim properly - seemingly caring little for Shrike possibly becoming a victim of some friendly fire were she not careful enough.

"I am not all that glad to see you still alive after our last meeting but I aim to fix my mistakes!"

Autobase Tau
Amidst her flurry, she found the autobot escaped her wrath temporarily. She felt it was impressive, but he's still an enemy.
She heard Motormaster approaching them.
As Motormaster's shots were fired into the area she backed off giving Mirage distance between them and gives Motormaster some room for error in his shots as she got out of his line of fire. At least she hoped he had enough room for error.
Deep down in her spark she wanted to finish the duel bot to bot. She felt she had the upper hand at the moment, even with a disabled leg, but she keeps her ego in check and she says nothing hearing Motormaster has unfinished business with Mirage. She recognized grudges.

The Autobot seemed rather full of himself to think he could fight 2 Decepticons simultaneously as opposed to retreating.
"Don't dare underestimate me Autobot! I was going easy on you, fool! You should have retreated when you had the chance and now you pay for your arrogance!" She shouted at Mirage with intent to intimidate, letting on that she is also somewhat insulted by his arrogant decision in thinking he could handle them both when she was wearing him down on her lonesome.

She punctuates her vocal outburst by letting loose with a hail of energy pellets from the Needler guns mounted on the sides of her head to sting at Mirage's armored hide.
The Needler Guns send a wide spray which could also possibly prevent him from using holograms effectively to escape her wrath again as they'd still impact an invisible opponent and those impacts would show his location until he got out of range. They'd also help determine what was a hologram.
The needler gun, however, wouldn't likely damage Mirage beyond welted armor, but it would likely harm his optics if he were hit in them.
Her energy rifle, on the other hand, is pretty potent.
She points her rifle at Mirage's torso and fires, pulling her trigger every 3 seconds or so making the best of her slow firing high powered energy rifle and her ally firing on Mirage as well.

Shrike left her concerns over her disabled leg, and her cracked and battered piece of shoulder armor behind. She wasn't bothered by anyone's lack of sympathy for her wounds at the moment. She could still function, and if she needed to, she'd likely lop off her own leg to access her beam canons last shot. Being coddled was alien to her, and she liked it that way.
Luckily for Mirage he just wasn't worth expending that much energon on to warrant her last beam canon blast.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

"Slag blast it, Quake!" Ruckus boomed as the massive Decepticon pulled up near him. "Yer s'posed to be out there scrappin' Autobot jalopies, not babysitting!" He punctuated his displeasure by smacking Quake's armored hide hard with his free hand. Not that he didn't appreciate what the big lug was trying to do. But Ruckus was expendable, at least in the Triggercon's own view. What was important--the only thing that mattered--was winning the fight. And he sure as the Pit wasn't going to responsible for throwing a wrench in the works just because he'd gone and got himself crippled.

If he couldn't keep up, he should be left behind. It was that simple. He'd been in worse scrapes than this. And if this Primus-forsaken Autobot hidey-hole was going to be his own personal junkyard, then he wanted to die at the scene of a Decepticon victory.

"Don't you worry about me," the Triggercon said as Quake pulled away at last to meet the recently-emerged Autobots. Finally, some real action. Even in his condition, it was an uplifting sight. "I ain't gonna send my spark off to meet its maker before I take a few of these scraplets with me."

And wasn't it nice of Ultra Magnus to make himself a big, conspicuous target that way? Putting a few dents in that big Bot would be a fine way to go out, in his estimation. Greatly cheered by that thought, Ruckus braced himself as best he could against a particularly large block of debris and fired a pair of high-explosive rockets straight at the enemy commander. "Fire in the hole, you giant fragging oil stain," he thundered cheerfully.

Autobase Tau- Perimeter

The plasma shell exploded violently as it made contact with Panzer's chassis, sending him back far from his orginal position.

Okay...bad idea...

He struggled to get back up, his legs felt wobbly and his torso was in bad condition. On top of that, his missile launchers were welded shut by the plasma burn from Quake's blast. If he fired them, he'd take his shoulders with them.

Okay, now he's got far-range on his mind...

He looked around and saw his original target, but it was too late, Wildride had shot him in his torso. Usually a shot like that was nothing to him, but now he was exposed in his chassis. He cried out in a symphony of pain-rattled outburst and obscenities not even heard by most Decepticons.

Pull yaself together idiot! You're still in battle and you've got a job to do!

He slowly stood up and looked dead onto Wildride.

"So, you think you're pretty smart eh? Shootin' me while I'm down? Well listen up you Decepticreep, I've got too much to protect and I don't need no stinkin' frag stoppin' me!"

He transformed and started to fire his cannons at Wildride. He was now fully protected and he was ready to crush his opposition. Now he was pissed and didn't even notice that Quake had gone off to help Ruckus...

Autobase Tau- Perimeter

Quake heard the cannon fire in the background, he was amazed Panzer could still function not only was the Autobot fighting Quake but half the Stunticons as well. "Hah! That Autobot has some spirit!" Quake exclaimed while he was busy firing his plasma cannon rifle at the Autobots that came from the Decepticon flank. The **** had hit the fan now, it was near a full-scale war at this point. Rockets, plasma shells, blasters, cannons, and hand-to-hand combat even has been exchanged between the Autobots and Decepticons. Quakes titanium was holding for the moment, however; the outside of his hull was covered in shrapnel from Panzers thunderous rockets. Quakes left fore-plate had suffered an a huge dent from Panzers axe, as well as a slash across his chest that nearly shattered the titanium bond that held him together. Quake had been firing the whole time and his plasma cannon rifle was smoking constantly, aiming one handed Quake opened fire again. This time he even included Arcee the blasting, Quake took a particular notice in slagging the pink femme. "Head's up beautiful!" Quake exclaimed before he aimed his plasma cannon rifle straight for Arcee's head and shoulders.

Quake was a little ways from Ruckus he had not forgotten were Ruckus was on the battlefield, however; he had to stop the Autobots from flanking the Decepticons on the battlefield. Quake stood in robot form aiming all around the battlefield to target the three Autobots but his main torture subject was Arcee at the moment attempting to put her down for the count.

Quake was distracted for a moment while rockets flew over his head from Ruckus aimed for Ultra Magnus. "Thats the stuff Ruckus!" Quake exclaimed. Quake didn't know why Ruckus wouldn't use his rockets earlier. "Die Magnus! Die Pinky!" Quake exclaimed.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

As he saw the rockets coming out of the corner of his other optic, Magnus grinned slightly.

They underestimate me.

He began straightening his left arm towards the direction of the rockets. But he knew he didn't have enough time. And he knew the Decepticons knew he didn't have enough time.

They really underestimate me.

He began kneeling down. Suddenly, defense grid cannons lifted up from the ground nearby. The Decepticons had gotten too close. And Magnus knew it. As he straightened his arm, the cannons began firing. One sent two missiles in the direction of Ruckus' rockets, blowing them up a few hundred feet from Magnus. The smoke covered the area around the explosion. When it had cleared, Magnus stood with his left arm stretched out in the direction of Ruckus. He fired his shoulder-mounted missile at the rubble before the Decepticon. As it launched, some defense grid cannons began firing randomly at Ruckus and Quake, while others returned underground to remain hidden and protected.

Now if Jedishen and the others can get out here, we'll stand some chance.

But still, Magnus looked forward at Scorponok. He watched as his rocket neared.

Come on.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

Tag! Beretta exclaimed internally as one of her gunshots took down some Decepticon drone. The figure just made a twitch, then fell back into one of the swirling clouds.

The femme continued to run forward, both her guns held up and spitting laser bolt after laser bolt at the enemy. Dashing through curtains of smoke, in front of, behind and next to enemies, and some mates here and there.

The Autobot force seemed to have flanked the advancing Decepticon assault unit, their lines now breaking into each other, bringing the rage of battle into close-quarters. Another aspect of warfare Beretta wasn't afraid of, in fact, she enjoyed it very much.

Or maybe, she just had not yet experienced true, deep fear.

As she ran deeper into the Decepticon line, suddenly a large, bulky silhouette sprung in front of her, only its dark, shady outlines visible through the cloud of dust between them.

It all happened almost oo quickly for Beretta to comprehend.

As the menacing figure made a firm, lumbering step forward, the dust swept aside from before his face, revealing the frightening, techno-organic tissue armor's head. Eyes flashing with insanity and razor-like teeth gritted, the creature lashed out with his hand at the charging femme. The stray laser bolts that managed to hit him did nothing more than to graze him.

What in slag...this ugly piece of... Was all that could race thorough Beretta's brain module, before a massive, crude hand thumped hard against her neck, the force of the impact cracking her shoulder plates and vocalizers, causing her to twitch violently. Losing her balance, Beretta dropped both of her guns and almost fell unconscious. Before she could even make out what was happening, the fearsome adversary lifted her up like a plastic doll, and began to slowly crush her throat section, while plunged the barrels of her weapon against her chest plating.

Ain't gettin' me that easily! Beretta thought as she finally managed to get herself together to at least react. With her teeth gritted, she kicked up to drive away the weapon, the same instant the barrels flashed up before releasing fire.

As Beretta's knee clanged against Roadblock's gun, another hit came and tossed the massive weapon off aim, right before it went off.

But even like this, the glowing, destructive blast of plasma that streaked out of the gunbarrel, tore into Beretta's right shoulder joint, ripped through her frame and almost had her arm blown off. The femme screamed up in pain as plate fragments, oil and fluids splashed from the wound in all directions.

The next Beretta could feel was the monstrosity's grip began to easen and let her fall down on the ground with a dull, metallic thud. Stasis lock alarms ringing in her cranial unit and mech fluid leaking from her thrashed shoulder, the femme battled to stay conscious.

Slowly raising her glance, she noticed - even if barely and disorientedly - the massive form of her enemy turn his attention to away from her, onto the shape standing between the two of them. A similarly curved mechanoid shape with a long staff held in hand.

"R-Remy..." Distorted sizzles came from Beretta's shattered vocalizer, as she recognized her best friend. It was her staff that helped swipe aside the hulking gun of the Decepticon assault warrior.

"Someone's gotta watch out for you, right?" Remington said with a feint smile on her face, not taking her optics off Roadblock, ready to deflect his next attack. She tightened her grip on her staff, in an attempt to calm herself, but with the monstrous creature in front of her, that took effort.

Autobase Tau ~ Perimeter

"MOVE!!" Jedishen shouted as the signal came in, before launching himself at the tunnel exit at full speed, the transition from the darkness of the tunnel to the brightness of the battle as he transformed triggered the Scout's visor to flick down as it began to pick up targets and threats. Behind him, the assembled strike team poured out of the tunnel, all guns blazing, determined to back up their Commander as best they could.

Wasting no time, Jedishen homed in on Ultra Magnus' position, before switching his attention to beyond, and those attacking the City Commander. Dropping down behind a destroyed turret briefly, Jedishen quickly slotted the explosive attachment onto his rifle, before sliding back out into the fray, moving towards Ultra Magnus' left flank, his sights set on Quake, the huge Decepticon standing tall, shouting and shooting in equal measure. Pulling the trigger, Jedishen sent 2 shots of high density, highly explosive laser fire in the direction of Quake, all the while not stopping his continual movement.


"Don't you worry Searchlight, this base has got plenty of hidden surprises for the 'Cons..." Roadbuster replied, as he and the 2 Throttlebots finally arrived back at the base "..See?" He continued, as the turrets emerged from the ground and opened fire "..That's classic strategy, draw them in, and take them down, couldn't have done it better myself.." Roadbuster continued, talking to himself as much as anyone else.

The Wrecker quickly snapped out of his admiring of Magnus' tactics as he spoke once more to Freeway and Searchlight "..OK you 2, lets go, Magnus is our target, our job is to see he makes it out of this mess not in stasis lock, move out" Roadbuster gunned his engines and rumbled off once more towards the City Commander.

Autobase Tau--Perimeter

Wildrider laughs.

"Up? Down? Shootin' ya's the fun part, heheheh!"

Wildrider fires again, but notices that the Autobot was quickly on his feet again. So, this one had a little fight to him. Well, a lotta fight actually, if he was going to try and take on this many Decepticons at once. These were always the funnest ones to pull apart by the axles.

The erratic Decepticon did his best to avoid the oncoming fire, but he was hardly the most nimble of mechs. His attempts were lucky guesses at best. And he wasn't terribly lucky either.

Two or three of the shots, he couldn't really count as the pain sensors sent signals coursing throughout his body, hit him practically dead on, sending him crashing and skidding to the ground.

After a few moments, he slowly starts to push himself up.

"Ow. Burn. Hot."

Skies above Autobase Tau

The skies above Tau were now streaked with laser fire, whilst the initial success of Stormfire’s assault had allowed the Autobots to inflict heavy damage on some sections of the Sweep force. The drones were rallying and the tide was inexorably turning against the Autobots. Stormfire was realised it was time to break formation, with the sweeps numerical advantage they could herd his small air force, and whittle it away with continuous attacks. By breaking the formation he would break up the sweep attack and allow the Autobots to have more of a chance of fighting back.

Stormfire gave the command, and his units split, aiming all over the skies, the sweeps to tried to latch on to a target, but keeping a bead on a foe in the whirling melee would be difficult indeed. Stormfire looped round and opened up his lasers, punching through a drones armour from behind, sending it spiralling down. It made no matter though, there were to many sweeps, the Autobots couldn’t stay up here for much longer

‘Magnus, how much longer are you going to need, we’re heavily outgunned and out numbered up here. I think the sweeps have at least a four to one advantage, probably lot’s more.’

Stormfire caught sight of another target and shot after him. There had to be a way to hold the sweeps, but he couldn’t see it.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

Quake noticed the defense turrets rise from the ground and take aim at him and Ruckus. "Ogga Booga!" Quake exclaimed as the Magnus turned the inner defense grid on the Decepticons. Quake quickly covered up crossing his arms with his plasma cannon rifle held in his hand across his chest. "That no good worm!" Quake exclaimed as Ultra Magnus had brought the defensive system online. The red colored laser fire cracked on Quakes hard titanium hall, pushing him back a few yards with each blast. Quakes titanium frame was a now a pitch black burned color in some areas from extensive blasts his hull had received. Smoke rose from Quakes armored form towards the sky, a result of blaster burn. Quakes optics then looked glanced across the field, catching a last minute view of the incoming fire he now faced. Two high density shots rang towards Quake.

Quake brought his arm up to cover himself from more resulting blaster fire as laser fire exploded of off Quakes armor, combined with the turret fire he was now receiving, Quake was launched back into a pile of debree, smashing into a broken turret system. "AHHHHHHHH!" Quake yelled out in a fury of rage while his circuits started to sizzle with anger.

Quake pushed himself to his feet after taking the pending blaster fire from both the turrets and Jedishen. Quakes armor showed the signs of weathering under the constant abuse it was taking on the battlefield, reaching down to pick up his huge plasma cannon that he held in his right hand.

Quake glanced over and noticed Wildrider had been blasted to the ground. "We have to take out those blasted turrets!" Quake exclaimed as he quickly changed his strategy once again, transforming down into his purple tank mode once again. Quake set his sights on the defensive grid Ultra Magnus had deployed. "Destruction is my speciality!" Quake exclaimed as he opened fire, firing plasma shells from his massive cannon at Ultra Magnus's defense grid. Quakes massive plasma cannon fire a number of times, as more red tracers flew across the sky, aiming at the defense turrets.

OOC: Ok, this thread is starting to spiral out of control so the Staff has decided to set down a general warning and some restrictions. Everyone participating in this thread is now limited to one post per day until the conclusion of this battle. This is to help prevent some people from posting repeatedly in one day, preventing people from responding to their posts. As a general warning if you are posting in this thread you MUST reading other people’s posts. I have seen people attacking characters who aren’t even around and repeatedly misname characters. There is no excuse for that. You must also give time for other people to respond to your attacks. Not everyone can even post once a day, so you might have to wait a while. Tied into that, you can not launch a series of attacks in a single post. You can have just two attacks at the most in a single post, and even then that should be rare. The other player needs to be able to respond to your attack before you launch more. Failure to follow these rules and guidelines may result in edited or deleted posts.

IC:

Autobase Tau – Perimeter

Scorponok detected the rocket long before it got close to him. As it flew past him he was already staring at the source of the projectile. Ultra Magnus had finally come out of hiding and decided to attack him. The fact that his attack missed instantly made him suspicious. Magnus was one of the top Autobot warriors and did not regularly miss his target, especially one as conspicuous as himself. The Autobot commander was planning something, trying to distract him or lead him into a trap. At this point it didn’t really matter though. The Heights would fall, but adding the deactivated body of Ultra Magnus would only magnify the victory.

He turned in the direction of the Autobot leader. He began making his way towards him. “Magnus, the Tagan Heights will fall to the Decepticons and now I will make sure you fall as well!” His tail flicked over his head and launched a blast of electricity at Ultra Magnus, enough to fry even his circuits.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

There was a moment or two of disappointment as his rocket attack against Ultra Magnus was intercepted by yet another series of Autobot defenses (and slag, was there any end to the damned things?), but soon enough Ruckus found himself with a whole new set of priorities. The big wreck's missiles were heading his way, and with his mobility impaired by his severely damaged legs, his chances of getting out of the way in time were slim to nil. Time for desperate measures.

As the projectiles impacted against the debris he had been using for cover, the Triggercon engaged his flight system, painfully launching himself away from his makeshift foxhole. He managed to avoid being completely consumed by the ensuing detonation; however, that was probably the best that he could claim. Twisting reflexively in the air to protect his already crippled left leg, a blinding wave of agony overtook Ruckus scant astroseconds before his internal diagnostics went berserk attempting to catalogue the extent of his latest injuries. His right arm had been shattered up to the elbow, leaving only a blackened stump. Most of that side of his body was now a mass of charred metal and exposed wiring. And the right side of his face had been almost completely melted away, rendering him half-blind.

This could be problematic.

Ruckus landed heavily on his back some yards away from his original position, his momentum causing him to bounce a couple of times against the unyielding Cybertronian surface stratum before finally sliding to a halt. Overriding the usual safety protocols, the smoldering Triggercon pulled himself with excruciating slowness into a half-seated position, his functional optic sensor fixing balefully upon the Autobots.

". . . zKt . . . ZrrHrgh . . . hRkT--" he sputtered, remaining online seemingly through pure stubbornness at this point. "Ya call that an--ZkK--attack, Magnus? I've known fraggin' protoforms that hit harder'n that--kKttkT!"

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

"I'm flattered you remember me," Mirage told Motormaster as he dodged nimbly to avoid most of the hail of fire around him. His enemies seemed not terribly concerned with accuracy, and he had little doubt that this was deliberate. Keep me moving...but keep me in one place. My electro-disruptor is only so good...and ditto my agility. Without question Mirage was among the most dexterous of Autobots, but even he was not impossible to hit. The scorches and slashes on his body from near-misses and glancing blows were proof enough of that.

Transforming into racer mode once more, Mirage accelerated hard onto a stretch of relatively smooth ferroconcrete and began doing precisely what his enemies seemed not to want him to do - he fled. Flight was quite natural to him. He was not the most courageous Autobot, and he most certainly was not the most devoted. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to name an Autobot less enthusiastic about their great 'Cause.'

"It is very pleasant to see you attempting to rectify your past mistakes, self-improvement and all that," he told Motormaster as he motored away from him, "but I find most of the best reflection and growth is done in private. Enjoy the solitude, old friend!"

With that, Mirage zoomed away from the Stunticon and Shrike.


"What the..."

Roadblock growled as something - immediately revealed as another weakling femme Autobot - knocked his twin plasma blaster off its target. Still, it did inflict a gratifying amount of damage upon Beretta, who now lay in a nearly-destroyed pile at the Pretender's feet. As he lay optics upon Remington, his gruesome visage broke into a grin. Just to add insult to injury, he kicked Beretta squarely in the midsection, lifting her clean off the ground with the force of the blow. He regarded Remington.

"Well, that's that. She ain't dead yet, but she will be after I let my boy Ruckus play with her after the rest of ya'll are dead or fled." The Pretender spat an enormous gob of fouled transmission fluid onto the fallen Autobot warrior and looked back at Remington and her paltry weapon.

"A stick. A fraggin' stick. Real nice."

As he stepped toward the femme, she lashed out with a sharp blow aimed at his knee in an attempt to slow him down. Roadblock was forced to bring one hand downward to swat the blow aside, but the Pretender did not slow his advance. Like something out of a fleshling horror movie, he kept coming as Remington swung her weapon in an attempt to keep him at bay.

"Gimme the stick," he said, walking toward her. "C'mon now, gimme the stick, glitch." She continued swinging away at him, trying to keep him back. "I ain't gonna hurt ya..."

He stepped closer, grabbing the energy staff's end in one huge hand.

"I'm just gonna bash yer slaggin' head in."

The other hand flashed at Remington, its open palm impacting with her cranial unit and knocking her senseless. The staff came free of her hands as Roadblock threw it away with no more effort than he would expend tossing aside a bit of wire. He then drove his fist into her middle, lifting her off the ground as armor buckled beneath the force of the blow. Grabbing her by the cranial unit, he lifted Remington off the ground.

"Can't have ya crawlin' after me, glitch," he said, grasping her left ankle with one hand. "Either yer head or yer leg comes off, an' either way ya can't move afterward. Lessee if Primus loves ya."

With a savage yank, Roadblock nearly tore Remington in half. As it was, her left leg went flying off in one direction while the rest of her slammed onto the ground, minus the leg.

"Guess Primus loves ya after all, glitch." Roadblock drew his twin rust-bomb launcher from subspace. "Or maybe he don't."

Roadblock pulled the trigger, firing the weapon point-blank into Remington's shattered body. The nefarious bit of military technology began devouring the metal that made up her form, turning her into something resembling a heap of ancient, dessicated hardware with an Autobot's head and shoulders attached.

"Say hi ta Primus fer me." Spitting a gob of fouled transmission fluid onto Remington's broken, rusted body, Roadblock turned and walked away to rejoin the rest of the battle.

Autobase Tau

She watched Mirage retreat and took some satisfaction in this victory.
If Motormaster wanted to keep after him, he could, but she had bigger fish to fry. Namely the ones slagging her comrades.
Part of her was glad Mirage made it out alive. She could meet him again, then resume the duel hopefully.
But there was a less ... Idealistic and noble part of her that wanted his spark case crushed under her heel and snuffed. A live Autobot is one that can kill one of her allies, and no amount of ideals would have an autobot reserve his combat for one Decepticon no more than one Decepticon would reserve their fighting for one Autobot. Everyone would fight anyone they felt they had to.
At least that's the way she saw things.
Shrike looks out into the battlefield surveying the battlefield. Her comrades were becoming outnumbered and starting to get slagged out there. Its true that the massive Scorponok might turn the tide, but by then the rest would be disabled or forced to retreat. The Sweeps were hardly doing their job as a great deal of the Autobot ground forces were relatively undisturbed by them.

She sends a transmission as best she can towards Tyrest.
>She sent the report calmly, setting aside the ego.
It wasn't about her. There simply needed to be more Decepticons down there to even the score.

She looks at Motormaster "You can go after the Autobot if you want, but our comrades are getting slagged out there, and if they do this battle may be lost!"
Shrike's thrusters ignite and she takes to the air looking over the battlefield from a better vantage point.
There were still turrets firing, and blasts filled the war zone.

She saw the rocket blasts that damaged Ruckus who was left in sorry condition. Quake and Scorponok seemed to be on that. Still, they might need some backup.
She accelerates heading for Ultra Magnus,Wildrider, Quake and Ruckus firing at the turrets and Ultra Magnus with her rifle from the air on her way hoping to draw some fire away from them and destroy more of those turrets.
She also made sure to stay out of the way of Scorponok's assault.
Shrike is not high enough altitude to be up there with the Sweeps and the flying Autobots, but not that low to the ground. She does her best to keep alert and agile incase trouble comes her way.

OOC: You do not call hits on other player's characters, only make attempted attacks. Consider this an official warning. -Devastron

Autobase Tau- Perimeter

Hot Rod and Blurr made it out of the tunnels guns blazing when heavy plasma fire rained down in the two Autobots’ direction. Dodging form left to right the cavalier and the messenger made their way to some cover. From behind a small pile of debris Hot Rod aimed and fired in the direction of Roadblock. Anger started to pour over the young mech when he saw Remington’s broken body lying on the metal terrain.

“Slag you!” With that Hot Rod let loose a volley of plasma fire from his arm weapons.

Hill over looking Autobase Tau

Chase stared down into the chaos of the battle and saw his erstwhile companions just about to enter it, he radioed to Roadbuster, Freeway and Searchlight,

Perimeter, Autobase Tau

"What happens if the Cons breach the perimeter?" Searchlight asked Roadbuster, "Do we have anything in reserve?"
"We probably shouldn't worry about that," said Freeway, "Right now we need to concentrate on holding the line against the Decepticons. Remember they're further away from their medical facilities than we are, even if we fight to a draw we can get patched up quicker than they can. We can also re-arm quicker too,"

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

Quake remained in his tank mode for the time being. Quakes plasma cannon continued to target the defense grid Ultra Magnus had errected in front of the Decepticon path to glory. Large echoed blasts came from Quakes smoking hot plasma cannon. Quakes engines started to turn as the massive tank rolled forward, heading towards Scorponok, who was pushing towards the city commander, Ultra Magnus. Quake drove forward on the right flank of Scorponok, gaining ground on the Autobot leader. Quakes plasma cannon started to glow a vibrant purple color as the plasma shell are prepared to cause area damage rather than direction damage. As Scorponok fired his energy blast at Magnus, Quake also fired a plasma spread at Ultra Magnus, upon impact the shell would explode and release hot plasma on everything in the general touch down area. Cut off the head and the body will die, such is the case in destroying the Autbot leader, if he fell the Autobots would no doubt retreat in full force.

Quakes outer hull had sustained massive amounts of battle damage at this point, dents and blaster burn made up the outer designs of his structure. "Don't worry Ruckus! I'll slag this Autobrat for you!" Quake exclaimed over the field while Ruckus remained in a sitting postion on the ground.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

"Running again? Too bad." Motormaster smirked as Mirage bolted off. He hadn't really even expected the Autobot having the guts to stay and fight him but it still irked Motormaster. After all, inflicting pain and misery was his idea of good time and the Autobot had robbed him from that again.

Setting up his atom-smasher rifle, Motormaster this time took an aim and fired couple of blasts at the rapidly departing Mirage, hoping to that at least scratch the Autobot.

With Mirage getting out of range, the large Stunticon turned his attention to Shrike as she decided to address him.

"Our Sweeps are slaggin' outnumbering the Autoscraps and the little femme is losing her calm already? Go out and fight and don't slaggin' try to interfere with my business." Amused Motormaster replied to the fleeing femme with a sinister smile appearing on his cruel facial features. Most Decepticons had learned to be more careful near him.

"Slaggin' glitch."

Transforming, Motormaster set off towards Roadblock's position, who was apparently getting all the fun judging by all flashes of energy blasts cutting through the air near him.



OOC: Following is moderator forcing hits in order to deal with a single mechanoid taking on too many enemies at once and obviously not thinking through the consequences. However, this is not show of lethal force, rather an opportunity for Panzer to play dead and survive to fight another day.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

> Breakdown radioed his teammate while sneaking from the right flank of Panzer behind the Autobot, who seemed to awfully occupied with Quake and Wildrider. >

> Drag Strip transmitted back. >

Firing off his gravito-gun, Drag Strip caught Panzer completely off guard, instantly increasing the gravity pull around the Autobot warrior, making it more and more difficult to move. "Feeling heavy punk?! Beg for mercy, oh yeah!"

Time to work my magic. Breakdown thought while aiming his concussion rifle at the seriously slowed down Autobot. With his index digit pulling the trigger, a burst of electrocity charged out of the rifle's barrel, hitting Panzer with ease. Breakdown's rifle didn't cause direct physical damage, instead it caused random internal malfunction within its victims. If Panzer had it difficult by being held down by Drag Strip's gravity manipulator, now his internal systems were starting to go haywire. "And down you go freakazoid!"

"At least you were a good distraction Wildrider!" Drag Strip shouted at the only mech who could tolerate him for longer than missions required. "Wanna bet whether his fuel pump fries out before his cpu?"

Autobase Tau--Perimeter

Wildrider laughs raucously as he approaches the downed Autobot, who was no surrounded by his Stunticon comrades.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...that's just one, though. There's plenty left in there!" Wildrider challenges back as he moves to one side unintentionally, but luckily, missing an oncoming bolt of energy that had been headed for a leg joint.

"Looks like ya got a little in over yer head there, bolt bucket," Wildrider says, looking down at Panzer, having no idea what his current level of functioning was. He then looks to Breakdown and Drag Strip. "CPU definitely. Who'd be nuts enough to take us all on at once?!? Punk must think he's fraggin' Prime or somethin'. Hahahah!!!!"

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

By Primus, Trailbreaker better be out of there.

Already the defense weapons began declining. Magnus had done his best to put up a good charade. The truth was, he and Trailbreaker had strategically set up these cannons to appear as though there were far more than the base had. But the sheer number and power of the Decepticons attacking quickly knocked out any hope.

It stalled them, though.

>> Autobots, start moving back to your respective tunnel entrances. We have one last ditch effort, one chance. Just start falling back. Make sure to get the wounded. And whatever you do, don't let the Decepticons through the tunnels. We all have to get back inside. When we're all safe, roll out in the opposite direction as fast as you can. There'll be no turning back. >>

>> Stormfire, guard those tunnel entrances from any intruders. Keep them free until you see the last sets of guns go off. There's one last line of weapons left, and when they go off, you and the rest of the flyers jet it out to Iacon. >>

Turret activity faded. Soon, there were very few left after the fighting. The only relief Magnus had was seeing the rest of the Autobots following the plan and knowing the Decepticons were too bloodthirsty and focused on the fighting before them to not notice what the Autobots had behind them.

Just a distraction.

Magnus held back a smile. In all the heat and commotion, he hadn't let down his guard, though. Knowing the Decepticons were attacking him from multiple directions, the city commander had no other choice.

I have to hold these Decepticons back.

Magnus knelt down. He had only a fraction of an astrosecond. But it was enough. Already predicting Scorponok's counterattack, along with a hunch that the Decepticon commander wouldn't strike alone, Magnus had already begun preparations. He started to glow. As Scorponok and Quake launched their attacks, he reached a shining glow. His armor broke apart into little pieces and flew all around him, buffering and effectively neutralizing the blows from the attacks. Thick smoke engulfed a large radius surrounding Magnus. Some of the shards of armor broke from from the attack, flying rapidly and forcefully at the nearby Decepticons. The smoke still remained.

Autobase Tau - Perimeter

Beretta gave a painful groan as Roadblock kicked her aside like some metal pebble in the way. The broken frame of the fembot thudded and rolled backwards several meters, hitting the ground multiple times and sending waves of pain throughout her whole structure.

Finally coming to a stop, Beretta tried to give herself some stanchion, bending her operational arm and pushing herself up slightly. Her vision waved and flickered with distortion and alarm signals, and she was barely able to make out her surroundings. But still, she managed to recognize the dark purple monstrosity, staring vicously and closing on to another, smaller, curved form of a mechanoid.

Remy! The hulking bastard that made such a short work of her, was now after her friend. And she stood little to no chance against such a dreadful adversary. The realization thundered into her mind, making her operational circuitry sizzle. Whatever Beretta's concept on fear and despair had been, they all turned out to be similar to some faint impressions left in a protoform.

As Roadblock's massive hand clanged at Remington's cranial unit, Beretta's whole body twitched like it was her who got hit, the deep, screeching sound echoing in her audio receptors. She watched, terrified, the monstrous Decepticon dismantle her best friend, Remington's silent screams tearing into and ripping her spark in half. She couldn't bring herself to turn her gaze away. She was frozen in shock at the terror in front of her.

She could regain only a minimal fragment of her presence of mind when the broken frame of Remington was thrown back on the ground and burst with Roadblock's secondary weapon, making her midsection frizzle and smoke under the corrosive substance.

After that, the Decepticon turned away, seemingly loosing interest in the two near-dead fembots.

Her teeth gritted, Beretta reached out with her left arm and grabbed into the torn, fragmented ground layer, pulling herself slowly closer to Remington. Her plating jarred against the ground covered with dust and debris.

Hold on, Remy...hold on...don't die out here on me... She hissed internally, but more to herself than to Remington. She was starting to realize that the whole event was the result of her own irresponsibility. She would not admit it outright, but the heavy thumps coming from her spark impulsed that exact thought to her.

>

Override, slaggit! Beretta grunted to herself as her systems issued a shutdown command. She kept crawling slowly towards the battered body of Remington. But as she did so, her vision became more and more distorted and blurry, the noise around her seemed to fade into the distance. She was at the end of her energy supply. Gotta make it...slaggit, I gotta make it...

As she made the last pull her remaining strength would allow, a pair of metal boots came into her view. Another wave of shudder ran across her body. She was in no condition to fight off any enemies.

"Hey, Tigertrack! These two are still alive! Help me get them out of here!" Beretta could make out from the verbal fragments that made it to her audio receptors.

"On it, Foxtrot!" Another voice came somewhere from behind her.

The next she could feel was a sense of safety, which came from the realization that who found them were allies, and from the statement that Remington was still alive. It took a few astroseconds to reach her central processing unit and register, but when it did, Beretta suddenly felt easened.

Giving up to resist the stasis lock alarm, she let herself fall into blackness, with a slight glimmer of hope grasped.

Autobase Tau ~ Perimeter

>>Big and ugly eh? That describes about 95% of the Decepticon army. Thanks for the info Chase, keep in touch and make your way to my location as soon as you can<< Roadbuster replied to the Throttlebot Scout, as Searchlight and Freeway talked amongst themselves, and to the Wrecker "Freeway's right Searchlight, we've got to do what we can to hold the 'Cons off while the injured make for Iacon, buy them as much time as we can..."

Roadbuster was cut off as Ultra Magnus' radio message came through "We're gonna cut and run?" The Wrecker asked himself as he spotted the 3 Stunticons Wildrider, Drag Strip and Breakdown crowded round what looked to be a fallen Autobot. "OK, I don't know about you 2, but there's no way I'm falling back to base after only just arriving, so here's what I propose. There's 3 Stunticons down there, and there's 3 of us, should be a piece of cake..." Roadbuster paused as he tried to recall where he'd heard that term before "..Any objections?"


"I'm too close.." Jedishen thought to himself as he saw Scorponok and Quake open fire at Ultra Magnus "..There's no cover either" The realisation that he was right in the firing line of both attacks all too clear. The order to fall back reached him, but he had no time to react, all he could do was pull his arms up to shield his face and brace himself for the impact.

There was a strange moment of silence, where the Scout was expecting to get hit, but no such incident came about. There was a bright flash, quickly followed by multiple explosions, and then a thick veil of smoke enveloped the area, cutting visibility to a matter of feet. Slowly dropping his arms down, Jedishen could just make out the figure of Ultra Magnus ahead of him, the City Commander standing tall in the face of the Decepticon assault.

He knew he had to fall back, he didn't want to, but he knew he had to. Taking one last look towards his leader, Jedishen turned and began heading back towards the tunnel he had only just exited, shouting to those around him to do the same.
---------------------------------------
Incoming Message from Iacon

Trailbreaker to Ultra Magnus, the majority of the injured have made it to Iacon Magnus, the rest are not far off. Don't put yourself in any more danger, you've achieved what you set out to do, so get your aft out of there and down into the tunnels ASAP, Trailbreaker out.

Autobase Tau:

With one last sigh Wheeljack activated his shoulder launcher, firing a single explosive shell into the pile of equipment in his lab. The resulting explosion was enough to send the inventor flying back into the wall, leaving a decent sized dent.

"Ow, my achin cylinders". Picking himself up Wheeljack activated his com. "Magnus, it's Wheeljack. It took me l;onger than expected to clear out my lab, so I missed Trailbreaker's evac. Got anyone who needs my help?"